The One and Only Kirk Douglas by Terry Alexander

THE ONE AND ONLY KIRK DOUGLAS

2020 witnessed the passing of one of the greatest actors of the golden age of film

ON FEBRUARY 5TH, 2020, one of the greatest actors of the golden age passed away. Kirk Douglas was born on December 9th, 1916, and was 103 when he passed. Kirk had a great and varied career. He was nominated for the Oscar for Best Actor on three occasions, in 1950 for Champion, 1953 for The Bad and The Beautiful, and in 1957 for in Lust for Life but never won the gold statue. He did receive an Honorary award in 1996. He won a Golden Globe in 1957 for Lust for Life and was given the Cecil B. DeMille Award in 1968. He has been honored and received several awards for his lifetime of work in films. During his career, he stared in several westerns.

He starred in his first western in 1951, Along the Great Divide, directed by Raoul Walsh. Kirk shared the screen with Virginia Mayo, John Agar, and Walter Brennan. He portrayed Marshal Len Merrick. He and his two deputies saved a cattle rustler from a lynch mob led by a local cattle baron.

The Big Trees followed in 1952. His co-stars were Eve Miller, Patrice Wymore, Edgar Buchanan, and Alan Hale, Jr. Kirk played Jim Fallon, a timber baron trying to take a forest of sequoias from a group of Quakers.

The Big Sky was also made in 1952. Arkansas native Arthur Honeycut was nominated for an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for his role in the film. The other co-stars were Dewey Martin, Elizabeth Threatt, and Hank Worden. Kirk played Jim Deakins. A frontier trapper and a group of men ventured up the Missouri to get a large load of furs. This was Elizabeth Threatt’s only film.

He also made two westerns in 1955. The first was Man Without a Star, directed by King Vidor. A wandering cowboy and a green kid hopped a ride on a north bound train and became involved in a range war at their destination. Kirk played Dempsey Rae. His costars were Jeanne Crain, Claire Trevor, Richard Boone, and Sheb Wooley.

The second western was The Indian Fighter. Kirk played Johnny Hawks. He shared the screen with Elsa Martinelli, Walter Matthau, Lon Chaney, Jr., Alan Hale, Jr., Elisha Cook, Jr., Frank Cady, and Hank Worden. A scout leading a party through hostile Indian country became involved with the daughter of a Sioux Chief.

Kirk played Doc Holliday in 1957 in the classic Gunfight at the Ok Corral, a retelling of the classic gunfight. He appeared with Burt Lancaster, one of seven movies he made with Lancaster, Rhonda Fleming, Earl Holliman, and Dennis Hopper. Kirk was nominated for a Golden Laurel for his performance, but Lancaster won the award.

They teamed again, in 1959, for the Devil’s Disciple. A Revolutionary War tale of a local minister and a coward who discovered their true vocations during war time. It was a difficult film to place, not a true western, more of a frontier movie. The actors teamed up seven times in movies, the other five are I Walk Alone in 1948, The List of Adrian Messenger in 1963, Seven Days in May in 1964, Victory at Entebbe in 1976 and Tough Guys in 1986.

He co-starred with Anthony Quinn in Last Train from Gun Hill in 1959, directed by John Sturges. Kirk played Marshal Matt Morgan who was after the man that raped and killed his Native American wife, which turned out to be Quinn’s son. The movie also starred Earl Holliman, Carolyn Jones, and Brad Dexter. Quinn was nominated for a Golden Laurel award for his performance.

Kirk was Brendon O’Malley in 1961 for The Last Sunset. O’Malley was on the run from a persistent lawman. He fled to Mexico only to encounter an old flame and her family and chose to help them with a cattle drive back into Texas. Then lawman Dana Stribling showed up and decided to go along. Rock Hudson, Dorothy Malone, Carol Lynley, Joseph Cotton, Neville Brand, and Jack Elam rounded out the cast. Kirk was nominated for a Golden Laurel award for his role as O’Malley. The screenplay for this movie was written by Dalton Trumbo who, as one of the Hollywood Ten, had been blackballed by the Senate Subcommittee on Unamerican Activities in the forties and couldn’t find work.

Kirk said that the 1962 film Lonely Are the Brave was his favorite movie that he’d made during his career. It was a modern day western. John W. Burns was unwilling to accept the world the way it was and wanted to return to the days of the old west. The movie also starred Gena Rowlands, Walter Matthau, Carroll O’Connor, and George Kennedy. Kirk was nominated for a BAFTA for his performance.

After a five-year gap, The Way West was released in 1967. The movie co-starred Robert Mitchum and

Richard Widmark, Jack Elam and Harry Carrey, Jr. Kirk portrayed Senator William J. Tadlock, who put a wagon train to Oregon together. The movie centered on the strain of leadership and the suffering and hardship on the journey across the country. This movie was the film debut of Sally Field and Katherine Ross.

The War Wagon was also released in 1967. Kirk’s only western with John Wayne. They had appeared in two films previously. Wayne was Taw Jackson, a man cheated out of his land when gold was discovered on the property. A wealthy land baron had him arrested on a trumped-up charge and sentenced to prison. Kirk was the gunfighter Lomax, who once shot Jackson, and was hired to protect him until Jackson can bring his plan to rob The War Wagon to fruition. The movie also starred Robert Walker Jr., Howard Keel, Keenan Wynn, Bruce Dern, Bruce Cabot, Terry Wilson, and Sheb Wooley. The film won a Bronze Wrangler Award.

Kirk’s next western was in 1970. He played Paris Pitman, Jr. in There was a Crooked Man. Pitman was a thief, who was captured and put into prison. He had a fortune in stolen loot waiting for him on the outside and devised a plan to escape confinement. Henry Fonda was the prison warden who chased Pitman after he escaped. Hume Cronyn, Warren Oates, Alan Hale, Jr., and Victor French also appeared in the film. This was the only western film ever directed by Joseph L. Markiewicz.

In 1971, Kirk co-starred with Johnny Cash in the movie A Gunfight. Kirk played Will Tenneray. He and Abe Cross are aging gunfighters, together they devised a plan for one of them to get rich. They rented a bull fighting arena and planned to stage a gunfight and charged admission to anyone who wanted to watch. The movie also starred Jane Alexander, and Karen Black. Kirk’s son, Eric Douglas, made his first movie appearance in this film as Tenneray’s son Bud. This was also the first movie appearance for Keith Carradine.

Posse, released in 1975, saw Kirk as Howard Nightingale, an ambitious marshal with political motivations. He’s chasing after an escaped convict that he helped to set free. This movie co-starred Bruce Dern, Bo Hopkins, James Stacy, and David Canary.

Kirk returned to the western genre in 1979 in the western comedy The Villain. The movie co-starred Ann-Margaret and Arnold Schwarzenegger and was like a Road Runner cartoon with Cactus Jack as Wile E. Coyote. Jack Elam, Paul Lynde, Foster Brooks, and Ruth Buzzi also appeared. This was the final theatrical released western in which Kirk would be given star billing. It was also the final film project for Paul Lynde.

In 1982, Kirk played the dual role of Harrison and Spur in the Australian western, The Man from Snowy River. The movie starred Tom Burlinson and Sigrid Thornton. Harrison was a rich landowner from the United States trying to keep his daughter and the man she loved separated. The movie was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Foreign Film.

Kirk’s final western was released in 1984. An HBO western, Draw co-starred James Coburn and Alexandra Bastedo. Kirk Played Harry Holland, an old bandit released from prison who faced down a drunken sheriff. Linda Sorensen received a Genie Award for Best Performance by a Supporting Actress.

To call Kirk a prolific and talented actor would be an understatement. These films are only the tip of a very large iceberg that includes other such classics as Spartacus and The Final Countdown. Whatever your genre, though, Kirk Douglas was truly one of the great ones.

—Terry Alexander and his wife, Phyllis, live on a small farm near Porum, Oklahoma. They have three children, thirteen grandchildren, and four great grandchildren. Terry is a member of The Oklahoma Writers Federation, Ozark Creative Writers, Tahlequah Writers, Western Writers of America, and the Western Fictioneers. If you see him at a conference, though, don’t let him convince you to take part in one of his trivia games—he’ll stump you every time.